cocker wont pick rabbit

[black-jack 0]

hi ,i am training a 15 mth cocker dog evrything has gone to plan up to now,his retrieving has always been fantastic real enthusiasm,but he is giving me a real headache retrievieng cold or warm rabbit,he goes out for the retrieve when sent like a rocket gets to the rabbit usually picking it up an running slightly away from me as i give the recal he drops the bunny and comes back,i have tried walking away from him and had a couple of good retrieves from him but 9 times out of 10 he drops it ,if i send him back he mouths the rabbit a bit or rolls on it.

it is driving me nuts as he has been so easy on all other aspects of his training up to now,

can anyone advise me please.

thanks

[alimac 882]

go back to a little bit of dryed rabbit skin on its dummy, if that dont work id leave him from retrieving for a few weeks

[Neil Cooney. 1]

I'm having the same problem with a springer at the moment. When I switched from the dummy to dead game she wouldn't go back to the dummy.

Her retrieving was 100% untill I started asking her to retrieve in conjunction with gunshot. She's not gunshy but is now doing excactly what your cocker is doing. But my bitch retrieves perfectly at home and even in the field might give me 2 or 3 perfect retrieves to hand and then lie beside the game before coming back to hand empty mouthed.

Sometimes what works is to walk out with a rabbit in my hand so she can see it. Then I put her sitting while I walk out and throw the rabbit away. Then I walk back to her and you can see she's rareing to go. I leave it for a couple of seconds and then walk back out and retrieve the rabbit myself. I do this once or twice and often get a good fetch of her.

Some friends who've trained more than me tell me you'll often get this for a while in a dogs training. Thats not what I want to hear and it's very annoying. My bitch is 12 months old.

I too would like to see what someone more experienced would have to say.